On or near 5/31/2003 6:13 AM, Walt Hopkins at [EMAIL PROTECTED] observed:
> What I want to do is to simplify and clarify
> my setup.
>
> I am running Entourage X and my intention is to get down to a lean database
> because my current one no longer fits on a single backup CD. I have 2233
> contacts and well over 500 folders (which I discovered when I went over the
> limit of eMA).
>
> NOW: Most mail now comes into InBox
> CHANGE: Set up more rules so that all mail goes into designated folders. And
> use Custom View to check incoming mail.
>
I have a lot of folders and could stand more simplification, too. But
recently I went away from having a folder for every person (I had several
hundred like you), and began grouping mail by category: Coworkers, Work
Contacts, Friends, Family, etc. I have always had my incoming mail filed by
rules, and definitely prefer that approach. I have a "Lists" folder with a
subfolder for each mailing list I'm on (more than a dozen).
> NOW: Most mail eventually goes into a folder for that individual with the name
> as First Name then Last Name. (This makes it hard to find the folder since the
> folders don�t list alphabetically by last name the way the address book does.)
> CHANGE: Set up folders with Last Name then First Name.
>
I would get rid of individual folders entirely, except for any
correspondents with whom you exchange mail daily or almost daily.
> NOW: Each person�s folder is a subfolder within other subfolders (such as the
> IFR December 02 folder, within the IFR course folder, within the Shell client
> folder, within the Clients folder). This gets complicated when someone takes
> several of my training courses. Or when someone was a support staff person at
> a course organiser, then a participant on a course, and now a colleague.
> CHANGE: Identify people with multiple categories and then place people in much
> larger folders, such as Clients, Participants, Colleagues, Friends, and
> Family. Not sure whether to keep individual folders.
>
I'd suggest making more use of Entourage's ability to form links. For
instance, there is a preference you can set that will link every message for
an address that exists in your address book to that contact's record in the
Address book. There is another Address Book preference that will
automatically assign categories to a message based on the sender's category
in your Address Book! So you could give a contact two or three categories
and those will be automatically assigned to all messages from that contact.
Then, Custom Views by category can quickly pull together all the messages
from various folders. Going to a contact in the AB and pulling up its Links
will show you all the messages from or to that contact, wherever they are
stored.
You can use categories, or contact groups, to categorize mail; then a CV can
call up all the related messages.
I have a Custom View set up that displays all unread mail _except_ that from
mailing lists. I have another even more restrictive, displaying only unread
mail from certain key categories or contact groups ("Important Mail"). When
pressed for time I just process Important Mail and let the rest wait.
I archive my messages (I use FileMaker but not eMA, although I used that for
years; I've created my own) after two weeks and delete them from Entourage.
I find that 90% of the lookups I do are within 2 weeks; after that, I can
find it in the FileMaker database. I delete 90% of all mailing list mail
before it gets archived.
> Do any or all of these changes make sense? If so, I assume that it also makes
> sense to do them before I do the archiving.
Yes! I still have not gotten around to going into my archive and merging
categories created from the time I was sorting them to individual folders.
The folder list in my archive is HUGE, and way too long to use efficiently.
> Then I can come back to the huge
> database and delete all the files of people who are no longer active and work
> with that lean database except when I need to check the archives for some old
> message.
>
Exactly! Also, in the Address Book, there is a field that shows the date of
last contact (mail received, mail sent). You can find inactive contacts by
examining those fields. I have a script that will find them, list them, and
optionally, delete them; it lets you set the cutoff date (e.g. No contact
since 1/1/2001, etc.). If you would like a copy, or you can find it on my
website (see URL in my sig) or at macscripter.net. Name is "Find and Delete
Old Contacts".
--
Microsoft MVP for Entourage/OE/Word (MVPs are volunteers)
Allen Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Entourage FAQ site:
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
AppleScripts for Outlook Express and Entourage:
<http://members.thinkaccess.net/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/Scripts/>
Entourage Help Pages: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
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